1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to water safety device, more specifically it relates to a flotation garment for providing balanced buoyancy to a snorkeling user.
Vacationers in tropical locales often enjoy the activity of snorkeling. Participation in this activity requires a user to swim at a leisurely pace with their face in the water. A mask is worn to increase visual acuity underwater, and a snorkel tube is placed in a user's mouth to allow breathing while the user's face is submerged. The activity is not overly strenuous, but may be difficult for participants who are not strong swimmers or are not comfortable in deep water. Individuals who are anxious about swimming in deep water may choose to use a life vest or other personal buoyancy device in order to keep their body afloat.
The personal buoyancy device most commonly available to the casual swimmer is the life jacket. Life jackets typically comprise front and back portions of buoyant material covered by a water-safe material. This vest is secured to a user by a set of clips and straps that extend across a user's midsection. The vest may be filled with a buoyant material such as foam, rubber, plastic, or other material that may be suitably buoyant or inflatable. These devices are designed to provide sufficient buoyancy to keep a user's upper body and face out of the water. Snorkelers and water sport enthusiasts may find this degree of buoyancy problematic, because it reduces the user's ability to swim face down in the water, float low in the water or dive deep underwater.
Life Jackets present additional problems. They are often unbalanced, having high buoyancy material distributed along the upper chest and shoulders. These structures makes it easy for a user to float vertically in water, but can be very cumbersome to those attempting to swim in a horizontal fashion, or to dive deep underwater while wearing the jacket. In addition to the amount of buoyancy, the bulk and inflexibility of common life jackets forces users to swim unnaturally or uncomfortably. Arm motions must be altered or exaggerated to accommodate the size of the armholes in the life jacket, and the head must be turned at angles that may be uncomfortable in order to see forward. The additional effort expended by swimming in a life jacket may result in a user tiring more rapidly than they normally would, developing cramps, or the material of the jacket abrading a user's skin.
Some snorkelers and water sport enthusiasts choose to wear a t-shirt underneath their life jacket in order to prevent abrasion to the skin. This method does alleviate some dermal rubbing; however neither a t-shirt nor a life jacket provides any thermal insulation to users swimming in cooler water, nor do they provide uniform protection from the sun's UV radiation. A personal buoyancy device is needed that provides snorkelers and water sports enthusiasts with comfortable, flexible, and balanced buoyancy that allows a user to swim in a horizontal position or float vertically, as well as provide adequate buoyancy without limiting occasional underwater in varying depths of water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art contains a variety of flotation garment devices for providing buoyancy to a user while swimming or snorkeling. These devices have familiar design and structural elements for the purposes of assisting with flotation of a swimming user; however they are not adapted for the task of providing a user with balanced buoyancy elements that promote flotation in a horizontal or vertical alignment. Nor do does the prior art contemplate a rash resistant material providing UV protection to the skin of a user. Further, the prior art does not contemplate snorkeling activities, which entail periods of flotation punctuated by the occasional underwater dive.
McDonald et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,622 discloses a safety swimsuit having a plurality of buoyancy elements. The suit comprises a tank style shirt removably affixable to a pair of shorts or bikini bottoms, by means of hooking fasteners. Said shirt having multiple waterproof pockets vertically or horizontally disposed along the front and back face of the shirt. Said pockets are filled with Styrofoam pellets, and alternatively may be hollow and inflatable. The inflatable buoyancy pockets may be filled with or evacuated of air by utilizing attached valves. Buoyant foam padding is not disclosed as an optional filler material for the waterproof pockets. This patent is directed to a life preserver device, as opposed to a snorkeling or water sport garment that provides buoyancy combined with activewear. The present invention provides a garment that facilitates both buoyancy and improved capability with regard to the activity at hand, namely snorkeling or similar water sport activity. The proposed garment is equipment that does not impede the desired activity, while still providing a degree of buoyancy for safety and security purposes.
Michalochick, U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,968 discloses a buoyancy swimsuit having a large buoyant element. Said buoyancy element comprises a front and a back portion and two shoulder portions. The shoulder portions extend from the front of the garment to the back, over the top of a user's shoulders. Front and back portions cover the forward and rearward upper torso. A two-ply material encloses the buoyancy elements. The elements may be constructed of foam rubber or foam plastic. Michalochick discloses that the buoyant elements are larger towards the front and shoulders to prevent a user's face from being immersed in water. The present invention provides for buoyancy elements appropriately spaced along the torso of a user to facilitate balanced flotation while swimming in all orientations, including upright, face down or while diving in water. Michalochick discloses a swimsuit having a lower pants portion, not a body-hugging shirt for providing light buoyancy while snorkeling and appropriate articles for water sport activities. Additionally, the instant invention does not require a two-ply elastic mesh material for the construction of the snorkeling shirt.
Adee, U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,485 discloses a method for teaching a person how to swim buy placing the student in a swimsuit having elements of variable buoyancy attached to the front of said swimsuit, placing the student chest down in a pool, and instructing the student on proper swimming technique. The present invention discloses foam filled pockets along the back and front of a shirt, not a swimsuit having variable buoyancy elements, or a method utilizing such a device for swimming education. Adee also does not disclose foam filling or buoyancy elements on the back of a shirt.
Choi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,765 discloses a flotation vest for providing buoyancy for a user while swimming or snorkeling. The swim vest comprises an upper body shirt having a series of straps for removably securing an inflatable bladder, and a lower body portion removably secured to said upper body shirt by a fastening means. The buoyancy element of Choi is a variably inflatable bladder that receives and expels air by means of a valve disposed on its exterior. Choi does not disclose the use of foam material for providing buoyancy to a snorkeling user. Additionally the bladder of Choi may be removably secured to varying places along the surface of the upper body device, while the present invention contemplates permanently affixed pockets of buoyant material within a zippable sportswear garment, particularly suited for snorkeling activities and occasional underwater diving.
The devices disclosed by the prior art do not address the need for buoyancy elements balanced in a manner that promotes both horizontal and vertical flotation of a swimming user. Nor do the prior patents provide a garment particularly suited for deep water snorkeling, which requires adequate buoyancy to stay afloat for long periods of time in open water, while not inhibiting diving activities from the surface of the water. The prior patents similarly do not address the need for a flotation garment that provides rash and UV protection for the skin of a user. The current invention relates to a device for providing buoyancy to a user while he or she is snorkeling. It substantially diverges in structural elements from the prior art; consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to the existing flotation garment devices. In this regard the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.